Health highlights Thursday

It’s Groundhog Day on Capitol Hill, where Senate Democrats will resume efforts Thursday to pass their tax extenders bill and House leaders will continue mulling their approach to the “doc-fix.”

The Senate debate has hinged largely around an extenders provision providing tens of billions of dollars to state Medicaid programs. The states are threatening layoffs and benefit cuts if the funding -- a six-month extension of the enhanced federal share -- doesn’t arrive. But upper chamber budget hawks have balked at the nearly $24 billion pricetag. 

The impasse led Democratic leaders to introduce yet another amended bill late Wednesday night. The latest version scales back the enhanced federal share even further than earlier proposals -- from an additional 6.2 percent (now), to 3.2 percent (in Q1 of 2011), to 1.2 percent (in Q2 of 2011). It remains unclear if the estimated $8 billion in savings will be enough to entice some Republicans to support the bill.

In the House, Democratic leaders have yet to take up a bill delaying a 21-percent pay cut for Medicare doctors through November. The Senate passed the bill last Friday, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blasted the proposal over its slim six-month window and a controversial offset provision. House Democrats also want assurances that the Senate will actual pass the tax package, and have effectively held the doc-fix hostage to put more pressure on centrist senators to support the extenders bill. 

In other events, the House Veterans Affairs Committee meets Thursday to examine the technical barriers hindering the delivery of healthcare services in rural America. A long list of medical technology experts will testify, most representing private HIT companies. Also on hand will be representatives of the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department and the Federal Communications Commission. 

Healthcare experts Thursday will continue to examine comparative effectiveness strategies at an all-day forum in Washington hosted by the National Pharmaceutical Council and America’s Health Insurance Plans, among others. Comparative effectiveness -- a system of studying various treatments for the same illness to learn which work best -- is seen as a promising way to reduce wasteful spending in the healthcare sector. (AHIP is a strong supporter because insurers don’t want to pay any more claims than they have to.) But there are also concerns that some treatments, drugs, devices etc. -- found to be ineffective for most -- might become unavailable a smaller population that find them beneficial. (The pharmaceutical industry is wary of comparative effectiveness.) 

On hand will be Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation; Carolyn Clancy, director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; and Gail Wilensky, senior fellow at Project HOPE/Health Affairs. 

Meanwhile, a new study lends good reason behind all the discussion over healthcare reform: The United States, the Commonwealth Fund found, ranks last in healthcare quality relative to other developing nations.

“As an American it just bothers me that with all of our know-how, all of our wealth, that we are not assuring that people who need healthcare can get it," Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund said Wednesday.