Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle Discusses Health Care Reform with Hall Render
On Thursday, Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) joined Hall Render Chairman Bill Thompson and McKinsey and Company Director Paul Mango for a wide-ranging panel discussion on the future of health care reform. The three health policy experts covered a range of topics from quality and access, to the role government should play in the health care marketplace at a Hall Render-sponsored event in Milwaukee, WI.
Sen. Daschle told the assembled attorneys that the American health care system is on the verge of major innovations. Throughout his remarks, he repeatedly stressed the important role telehealth will play in the coming years. “I can’t understate the importance of health information technology in the new health paradigm,” Daschle said. “The improvement in value and efficiency it provides will make Health IT the backbone of our future health care system,” he added. Several telehealth-related bills have been introduced in Congress this year, including a bipartisan House proposal that addresses the complicated issue of cross-border medical licensing.
Sen. Daschle also reflected on the debate over permanent repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate (“SGR”) formula currently taking place on Capitol Hill. Although he believes the lower repeal cost of $148 billion provides an excellent opportunity for lawmakers to finally do away with the outdated physician payment formula, he also believes there is an 80% chance Congress will simply pass another temporary “doc fix” bill at the end of the year. When asked who he expects to bear the brunt of the cost to permanently repeal the SGR formula, Sen. Daschle simply said, “Hospitals.”
Senator Daschle is currently a Senior Policy Advisor at DLA Piper.
Amended CR Likely to Be Sent Back to the House
On September 25, the Senate voted 100-0 to limit debate on proceeding to the Continuing Resolution (“CR”) that would fund the government beyond September 30. The Senate will then vote this afternoon on the House-passed spending bill, where it is expected they will strike a provision in the bill that defunds the Affordable Care Act, and then vote on final passage.
Senate passage will then send the bill back to the House where it will have less than 48 hours to vote on the Senate bill before the fiscal year ends. If the House amends the legislation, which most expect, the Senate would once again have to consider it and potentially make its own changes. Congress must enact a temporary spending measure for fiscal year 2014 by October 1 to avoid a government shutdown.
Senate to Move Bill on Physician Training at Children’s Hospitals
A bipartisan group of Senators reached a deal on a reauthorization of the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (“CHGME”) payment program. With an agreement in place, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is scheduled to mark-up the legislation on October 2.
Legislation to reauthorize the measure stalled in the Senate last Congress despite broad support. Earlier this year, the House passed a reauthorization measure (H.R. 297) after passing two similar bills last Congress.
The Senate legislation would reauthorize the CHGME program for five years at $300 million a year. It would also allow the HHS Secretary to bring a “small number” of children’s hospitals into the program that previously couldn’t participate, as well as provide the Secretary authority to set up a “quality bonus system” using funds left over from the newly eligible hospitals.
GOP Finance Members Want HHS to Delay EHR Incentive Program
In a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Republican Senate Finance Committee members John Thune (R-SD) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) asked for a one-year delay of the Electronic Health Records (“EHR”) incentive program. The letter, which was signed by 17 Senators, argued health care providers should be provided more time, if necessary, to meet the Obama administration deadline for the second stage of the incentive program.
Currently, providers who began the meaningful use program by 2012 are required to meet new criteria in the second stage of the program by next year. However, all providers must use the new 2014 edition of certified EHRs, which means more than 500,000 hospitals and physicians will be required to upgrade technology by the end of 2014.
The Senators asked HHS to respond to the request by October 8, 2013.
Hospital-Acquired Infections Draws Senate Attention
On September 24, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a hearing on reducing hospital-acquired infections. Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) called the hearing “one of the most important hearings the committee has held” this Congress. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testified at the hearing and noted that about one in twenty hospitalized patients develops health care-associated infections, and more than one million infections occur annually in a health care setting.
Bills Introduced This Week
S. 1555: Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) introduced a bill that would amend titles XVIII and XIX of the Social Security Act to provide for a delay in the implementation schedule of the reductions in disproportionate share hospital payments.
H.R. 3168: Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX) introduced a bill that would amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for a Medicare established provider system where providers of services and suppliers with a low risk for submitting fraudulent Medicare claims are provided certain claim review protections.
Next Week in Congress
Congress will need to fund the government by the end of Monday or face a government shutdown. Additionally, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced earlier this week that the federal government will hit its debt limit by October 17. Were the borrowing cap not raised by this date, the nation would default on its debts. Thus, negotiations over raising the debt limit will intensify.
For more information, please contact John F. Williams, III at 317-977-1462 or jwilliams@wp.hallrender.com.
Please visit the Hall Render Blog at http://blogs.hallrender.com for more information on topics related to health care law.
