On June 19 the House issued an initial "discussion
draft" of its health care reform legislation. The document is
a joint product of three House committees: Ways and Means, Energy
and Commerce, and Education and Labor. The committees tentatively
plan to mark up the bill shortly after the July 4 recess. The health
reform package includes various proposals on graduate medical education,
Medicare physician payment reform, and an initiative to reduce "potentially
preventable" hospital readmissions, among other measures. In the
Senate, the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee
continued marking up its draft health care reform legislation before
adjourning June 25 for the week-long Independence Day recess. In
its daily meetings since June 17, the committee has adopted more
than 250 amendments to the bill, including reinstating the "20/220
pathway" of the Economic Hardship Deferment, requesting that the
Institute of Medicine make recommendations on reducing unnecessary
hospital readmissions; and addressing legal and regulatory barriers
that prevent hospitals and other entities from providing technology
support to other providers in the community.
AAMC comments on proposed definition
of "meaningful use" of health IT
On June 25 the AAMC submitted a comment letter
to the federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information
Technology's Health Information Technology Policy Committee urging
the committee to refine its proposed definition of "meaningful use"
of health IT. The AAMC expressed concern about many ambiguities
in the proposed definition, including questions over applicability
and the ability of hospitals and eligible professionals to collect
and report required data. The AAMC also emphasized that the requirements
for being a "meaningful user" of electronic health records must
not create impediments to comparative effectiveness and other research.
AAMC joins other groups objecting to proposed
increase of SBIR set-aside
On June 23 the AAMC joined nearly 100 organizations in sending
a letter to Congress opposing a provision to increase the Small
Business Innovation Research (SBIR) set-aside for federal research
agencies. The letter, coordinated by the Federation of American
Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), objects to a provision
in the SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 2009 that would increase
the allocation for the SBIR program from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent
of any federal agency budget that provides more than $100 million
for research. The letter states that the "mandatory increase in
the SBIR allocation across agencies will necessarily result in funding
cuts for the peer-reviewed research conducted by other organizations."
OMB issues Recovery Act implementation guide
The federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released
a memorandum outlining
the reporting requirements for those receiving grants under the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Designed to increase
transparency and accountability over where and how the ARRA funds
are used, the guidelines require grantees to report the amount of
funds received, , the completion status of funded projects, estimates
on the number of jobs created by the projects, among other factors.
OMB also clarified that the first reports are due Oct. 10, not in
July as previous announced. In addition to the main guidance document,
OMB has also issued two supplementary documents and a program which
includes a reporting template.
Senate leader asks medical schools for COI
policies
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) recently sent a letter
to 23 medical schools requesting information about their conflict-of-interest
policies. Grassley, who is the ranking member of the Senate Finance
Committee, sent the letter to the medical schools that did not participate
in a recent American Medical Student Association survey on such
policies. The AAMC has encouraged all of its members to develop
and implement strong and effective COI policies that address relationships
with industry. Shortly, the AAMC intends to assess the progress
its member institutions have recently made in achieving this goal.
A new report
from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius points to rising insurance deductibles, higher copayments,
and rising out-of-pocket costs as key causes behind rising health
care costs. The report, titled "Hidden Costs of Health Care: Why
Americans Are Paying More But Getting Less," comes amid continued
debate in Washington over health coverage.
On the move
The National Quality Forum has named Laura Miller as senior vice
president and chief operating officer. Miller was previously deputy
undersecretary for health operations and management at the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs.
