House Proposal Would Kill Health Care Quality Agency
The House fiscal 2016 budget plan would terminate the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and spread its duties among other parts of the Department of Health and Human Services. The plan would also boost funding for a rural health grant program.
CQ Healthbeat:
Health Quality Agency Becomes Object Of Appropriations Fight
A federal agency charged with helping prevent hospital patients from acquiring infections and suffering other harm in the course of medical treatments is emerging as a flash point as appropriators draft the spending bill for many federal health agencies. Lucille Royball-Allard of California on Wednesday cited the reported successes of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in her bid to protect it. The House fiscal 2016 Labor-HHS would terminate AHRQ, with an intention of spreading its duties among other organizations in the Department of Health and Human Services. (Young, 6/17)
CQ Healthbeat:
House Bill Would Boost NIH Rural Grant Program By 14 Percent
A National Institutes of Health program that channels research money into mostly rural states would get a 14 percent increase in its budget under a House spending plan, a notably generous bump at a time of tight spending caps. Spending for the NIH’s Institutional Development Awards program would rise by almost $39 million to $311.8 million under a draft House Appropriations bill. Finding money for such an increase meant taking funds from other programs. The House Labor-Health and Human Services-Education bill would cut about $3.7 billion overall from fiscal 2015 spending levels. (Young, 6/17)
