Health care gets a pass in budget bill

House Republicans just kicked off a partisan budget process, but it won’t include health care cuts.

There was reason to worry that Republicans would use health care policies to pay for increased spending for the Iran war and other Trump administration priorities. Instead, they introduced a budget bill that would allow for $95 billion in deficit increases over a decade without trying to offset that with spending cuts or revenue increases.

Meanwhile, House committees have been busy passing a slew of bipartisan health care bills. Many of them are focused on transparency and are unlikely to cost much.

The committees’ work could set the stage for Congress to work on health care legislation during the lame duck period following midterm elections in November, though it remains to be seen whether the two parties will be in the mood for collaboration.

Yesterday, the House Ways and Means Committee passed a hodgepodge of health care bills. They include legislation to standardize prior authorization in Medicare Advantage and require private MA plans to report their approval and denial rates to government regulators. Two weeks ago, the Ways and Means Committee passed a bill designed to make tax-exempt hospitals show their public benefit.

A House Committee on Energy and Commerce health subcommittee also recently advanced health transparency bills, including a bill to require that health care facilities publish prices and charges for services and make health plans provide enrollees information on available items and services.

prior authorization

None the WISeR

While the MA prior authorization reform legislation is bipartisan, Republicans have not been on board with an effort by Democrats to block a Trump administration Medicare pilot, called the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction program (WISeR), to incorporate prior authorization into original Medicare.

Senate Democrats might force a vote on that measure today, according to two people tracking that legislation.

The White House is pushing back. Medicare officials gave a handout to lawmakers’ offices on Tuesday outlining what they say are the benefits of WISeR.

trump nominees

Will there be a HELPing hand on ASPR nominee?

On Wednesday, two Trump nominees for top health positions appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for their confirmation hearing.

HELP Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) immediately laid into Sean Kaufman, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response nominee, for his past statements on vaccines. The senator was referring to a now-deleted LinkedIn post, first reported by STAT, in which Kaufman raised points commonly used by people who are skeptical of vaccines.

“Why would you repeat those damn lies?” Cassidy asked, pounding his hand on the dais.

Kaufman said he thinks vaccines are safe and work, though he wavered when asked whether he supports HHS’ decision to defund mRNA vaccine research.

A single Republican no vote would prevent Kaufman’s nomination from passing out of committee.

Read more from Helen Branswell and Chelsea Cirruzzo for what Cassidy told reporters following the hearing.

cdc

CDC nominee also faced tough questioning

For the majority of the HELP hearing, senators concentrated on questioning Erica Schwartz, the nominee for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who appeared alongside Kaufman.

Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ousted the previous CDC director, Susan Monarez, over vaccine policy nearly a year ago. Senators pressed Schwartz on how she would plan to avoid a similar fate.

Read more from Chelsea for all the takeaways.

physician payment rule

Pay attention to that draft Medicare fee schedule

Medicare regulators on Tuesday published a draft physician fee schedule regulation with some interesting new policies.

Mario Aguilar reports on a proposal to ban vendors from providing remote patient monitoring services on behalf of doctors. That would be a major policy change that would impact a large percentage of remote monitoring care as it’s delivered today. Only clinicians themselves would be allowed to bill for the service.

The proposal is part of the administration’s effort to rein in fraud and wasteful spending.

The regulators also used the proposed rule to begin building a more consistent payment structure for clinical software and artificial intelligence that factors in their impact on patient outcomes.

Read more from Katie Palmer’s third installment of Paying for AI, a series examining how new clinical AI tools influence the affordability of health care and patients’ long-term health.

fda

Lawmakers hold hearing on FDA's role in biomedical innovation

House lawmakers held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss how FDA can help spur medical innovation, particularly by making it easier to run clinical trials in the U.S., Lizzy reports. Harvard medical professor Thomas Hwang noted that China hosts an increasing number of early-stage clinical trials, but the FDA conducts far fewer investigations of China's trial sites and facilities.

Democratic lawmakers took the opportunity to bring up other qualms with the administration, with several bringing up the White House's proposed rule to politicize the research grantmaking process. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) raised the issue of significant staff departures at the FDA, pointing to a letter he sent to the agency on Tuesday.

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