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Week ahead: Lawmakers tackle expiring healthcare policies
With multiple deadlines looming, lawmakers have plenty on their healthcare plate as they return from their two-week Easter recess.
The House and Senate could unveil as soon as this coming week legislation updating the fees prescription drug and medical device makers pay to fund their regulators at the Food and Drug Administration. The Energy and Commerce Health subcommittee is holding a hearing Wednesday on the user fees and “how innovation helps patients and jobs.”
Current user fees expire Sept. 30 and the committees of jurisdiction — Energy and Commerce in the House and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) in the Senate — had been hoping to start marking up legislation by month’s end.
The Senate Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the FDA on Thursday will hear testimony from Commissioner Margaret Hamburg regarding her agency’s $4.5 billion request for FY 2013, a $650 million increase over this year’s budget.
Finally, lawmakers are still working behind the scenes to strike a deal on the deficit and prevent an automatic 2 percent cut to Medicare provider payments on Jan. 1. The latest short-term “doc fix” to scheduled Medicare cuts also expires at the end of the year.
On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee will mark up medical malpractice legislation capping non-economic damages at $250,000. The House last month passed a similar bill that also nixed the healthcare reform law’s cost-cutting panel, the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). The bill being marked up Tuesday doesn’t include the IPAB repeal but would allow the committee to score $39 billion in savings and help it meet the requirements of Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget.
On Wednesday, the House Small Business Committee holds a hearing on taxes on the horizon. And the Senate Special Committee on Aging holds a hearing on “The future of long-term care: Saving money by serving seniors.”
Finally, on Thursday, the Senate HELP Committee holds a hearing on the impact on worker safety of delays in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s process for setting standards.
Off Capitol Hill, the Care Continuum Alliance holds its first-ever Capitol Caucus on Wednesday, with appearances by several lawmakers and administration officials who will address legislative and regulatory issues for wellness, prevention and care management in 2012.
The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission meets Thursday to discuss payment policies. And the Advanced Medical Technology Association holds a press call to discuss its new strategic plan guiding the medical device industry’s advocacy efforts over the next three years.
