May 13, 2024 This Week in Health Policy for May 13 This Week (May 13 - 17) Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on "Rural Health Care: Supporting Lives and Improving Communities."
Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on "Examining the Dental Care Crisis in America: How Can We Make Dental Care More Affordable and More Available?"
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability will hold a hearing on "Overseeing the Overseers: A Hearing with NIH Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak."
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability will hold a mark up on bills including the BIOSECURE Act
House Committee on Education & the Workforce will hold a hearing on "Examining the Policies and Priorities of the Department of Health and Human Services."
Last Week (May 6 - 10) Health Care Highlights DOJ unveils new anti-trust task force focused on health care. On Thursday (May 9), the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a new task force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion tasked with guiding the DOJ's anti-trust division's enforcement strategy and policy approach in health care. CMS extends Medicaid unwinding flexibilities. On Thursday (May 9), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services(CMS) extended through June 30, 2025, waivers to help Medicaid beneficiaries retain coverage as states go through the Medicaid redetermination process. CMS noted that states were originally scheduled to finish their unwinding processes by June 2024, but many states will continue those processes beyond June. CMS unveils mandatory kidney transplant payment model. On Wednesday (May 8), CMS released a proposed rule for the Increasing Organ Transplant Access Model, a new mandatory six-year payment model designed to test whether performance-based incentives or penalties for participating transplant hospitals would increase access to kidney transplants for patients with end-stage renal disease, maintain or improve care quality, improve equitable access to kidney transplants and lower Medicare expenditures. The model, which would launch January 1, 2025, is expected to include 90 non-pediatric transplant facilities conducting at least 11 kidney transplants during a three-year baseline period. Click here for a fact sheet. FTC reaches $7.8M settlement with BetterHelp. On Monday (May 6), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced online therapy firm BetterHelp has agreed to pay $7.8 million to settle FTC allegations that the company used and shared consumers' health data with third-party companies, including Facebook and Snapchat, for advertising. FTC initially announced the charges in March 2023. Hearings, Markups, and Other Committee Activity House Ways and Means Committee held a markup of telehealth and rural health access bills. On Wednesday (May 8), the Committee advanced six bills to extend Medicare telehealth flexibilities, extend the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program, and support access to care in rural areas, paid for in part by provisions to reform Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) practices. The bills advanced were:
Senate Budget Committee held a hearing on "Reducing Paperwork, Cutting Costs: Alleviating Administrative Burdens in Health Care." On Wednesday (May 8), the Committee held a hearing during which lawmakers and witnesses discussed ways to reduce administrative burdens in health care, including those tied to prior authorizations and duplicative or overlapping quality metrics. During the hearing, several lawmakers and witnesses discussed the potential for AI to help alleviate some of providers' administrative burdens and the need to address fraud and abuse in Medicare. During the hearing, Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) announced he would soon re-introduce the "Improving Seniors' Timely Access to Care Act," a bipartisan bill to streamline Medicare Advantage (MA) prior authorization processes, noting that the Congressional Budget Officer (CBO) told lawmakers the bill's cost would be reduced from $16 billion to zero.
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies held a hearing on "A Review of the President's Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request for the Food and Drug Administration." On Wednesday (May 8), the Subcommittee heard testimony from FDA Commissioner Robert Califf on the agency's FY 2025 budget request. During the hearing, Califf fielded questions on a range of topics including the use of AI and food safety amid the ongoing avian flu outbreak on dairy farms.
House Ways and Means Committee held a field hearing on "Empowering Native American and Rural Communities." On Friday (May 10), the Committee held a field hearing in Scottsdale, Arizona. The hearing included discussion of the health care provider shortage in rural areas and the lack of access to hospital and emergency care.
Reports, Studies, and Journals Department of Treasury: 2024 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund. The report projects that the hospital insurance trust fund will remain solvent until 2036, which is five years longer than last year's report. The report attributes the extended insolvency date to several factors, including a policy change updating how medical education expenses are accounted for in MA rates, higher payroll tax income, and lower than projected 2023 expenditures. Congressional Budget Office: Budgetary Outcomes Under Alternative Assumptions About Spending and Revenues. The report highlights the budgetary implications of alternative assumptions about future funding for discretionary programs, including permanently enacting the enhanced premium tax credits and changes related to the 2017 tax bill. Food & Drug Administration: 2023 Office of New Drugs Annual Report: Breaking Barriers to Advance Public Health. The report shows that FDA's Office of New Drugs approved 55 new drugs in 2023, up from 37 new drugs in 2022. According to the report, about half of 2023 new drug approvals were for rare diseases.
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