Important healthcare changes omnibus package — but not everything people wanted. That means there are plenty of things we could potentially come back to next year.
- Below are some of the policies that have been placed on the floor of the editing room.
COVID fundraising: The White House’s nearly $10 billion COVID-19 funding request was not cut. Republicans have argued for months that they don’t need more money, pointing to billions of dollars already provided by previous bailout bills.
- However, the White House said some of the money could have been used to develop next-generation vaccines, which could have more effectively fought the new strains.
- Our Thought Bubble: It’s hard to see if this fundraiser will have a better chance in the Republican House of Representatives next year — unless a new variant dramatically changes the landscape and politics.
Pre-approval: The package omitted common legislation to streamline Medicare Advantage utilization management requirements. A bipartisan bill he passed through the House in September, but its higher-than-expected price tag stalled progress in the Senate.
- Proponents expected costs to drop later CMS suggests rules Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville health care lobbyist Peggy Tighe said the Congressional Budget Office introduced the bill in early December based on previous approval, but did not regrade the bill in time.
- The recent CMS regulations have captured the work of many proponents this year, but “we definitely agree that these reforms need to be codified, and we’re working towards that.” said Tighe.
valid act: A measure aimed at modernizing the regulation of patchwork diagnostic tests was ruled out amid opposition from academic medical centers as it would impose costly new regulations.
- Supporters in Congress said they would continue to push next year. FDA spokesperson James McKinney told Axios that the agency was “disappointed” that VALID was not included.
- A spokesperson for Senator Michael Bennett, one of the sponsors, said, [Robert] The Caliph will take administrative action under his present authority. “
- Another sponsor, Rep. Larry Buchon, said in a statement that he would pursue “all angles to get this important piece of legislation into law” in the next Congress.
PBMs: Providing transparency from Bipartisan House Mental Health Package The bill, which passed Congress this summer, would have required PBM to provide detailed reports on costs, rebates and discounts on group health insurance.
- Senator Chuck Grassley told Axios on Tuesday that he intends to continue pushing for PBM transparency next year. The House Republican aide to energy and commerce confirmed in the new Congress that he will revisit the PBM transparency issue.
- Meanwhile, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, a PBM advocacy group, said in a statement, “As designed, the law will ultimately only allow pharmaceutical companies to manipulate the system further.” rice field.
- The PCMA added that the PBM industry is a “strong proponent of transparency” and that transparency requirements in the 2020 Omnibus Bill already require PBMs to report information on the top 50 drugs by spending and volume. I was.
Dietary supplement regulations: Consumer groups such as the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Center for Science in the Public Interest have advocated provisions requiring manufacturers to submit nutritional product labels to the FDA.
- That failure wasn’t really surprising since Senator Richard Burr told me in november There is no possibility of dietary supplement regulation in omnibus.
Title X: The Federal Family Planning Program won’t receive additional funding for the ninth straight year. A bill introduced in July by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Patti Murray, and Tina Smith would increase program funding to $500 million annually over the next 10 fiscal years.
Reality check: Even the most bipartisan policies on this list face an uphill battle for passage in a divided Congress next year.
