CQ’s Carey Discusses Scheduled House Vote on Medicare Package, Medicaid Provisions in House Supplemental Spending Bill, House Measure Including Funding Increase for NIH

Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, discusses a scheduled House vote on legislation that would delay a Medicare physician fee cut, House approval of a supplemental spending bill that would block six Medicaid rules and a fiscal year 2009 spending bill approved by a House panel in this week's "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ."

According to Carey, the House on Tuesday is expected to vote on a Medicare physician pay patch that would block the scheduled 10.6% cut for 18 months and increase physician payments by 1.1% in 2009. The cut is scheduled to take effect on July 1. Senate and House Democratic leaders are negotiating a Medicare package, and those talks are expected to result in compromise legislation, Carey says. However, significant support for the House bill could put pressure on the Senate to act before the Fourth of July recess, according to Carey. The House measure would be financed by cuts to indirect medical education payments under Medicare Advantage. It also would require private MA fee-for-service plans to establish provider networks in some areas to improve accountability and transparency. Other offsets would include using $1.1 billion from a "Medicare Improvement Fund" and ensuring that Medicare providers pay their taxes on time.

Carey also discusses House approval of a supplemental war spending bill (HR 2642) that includes a provision to halt until April 1, 2009, six of seven new Medicaid regulations issued by the Bush administration. The regulation not affected by the measure would restrict Medicaid payments for some outpatient services. The House version differs from the Senate version of the bill because it does not block implementation of a policy directive issued by the Bush administration in August 2007 that restricts states' ability to expand SCHIP coverage, and it allocates $150 million for FDA to improve food and medical product safety, compared with the $275 million that had been included in the Senate bill. The Senate is expected to pass the measure this week, and the Bush administration supports the bill, according to Carey.

Finally, Carey discusses House Appropriations subcommittee approval of a measure that would provide NIH with a $1.2 billion increase in discretionary spending to $30.1 billion in FY 2009. The measure would provide HHS with $69 billion in discretionary spending. The measure, which provides $153.1 billion in discretionary spending overall, allows $7.8 billion more than President Bush requested and an $8 billion increase over FY 2008. Bush has threatened to veto spending bills that exceed his requests. The full House Appropriations Committee could begin consideration of the measure this week, according to Carey (Carey, "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ," 6/23).

The complete audio version of "Health on the Hill," transcript and resources for further research are available online at kaisernetwork.org.