Summary
The House and Senate both come back into session today as European leaders join President Biden in DC for the 2024 NATO Summit (and 75th anniversary of NATO) this week.
The House is scheduled to take up a slew of bills including the fiscal year (FY) 2025 Legislative Branch spending bill; the SAFE Act, a measure to require proof of U.S. citizenship for voters; the Refrigerator Freedom Act and Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act; and legislation to reverse the Department of Education’s recent Title IX Rule which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex and protects against discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.
On a committee level, the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to markup the FY 2025 Labor-HHS-Education, Transportation-HUD and Agriculture-FDA appropriations bills on Wednesday and on Thursday the Senate Appropriations Committee will begin marking up their own appropriations bills starting with the Military Construction-VA, Agriculture-FDA and Legislative Branch bills, as well as approving the Subcommittee allocations. The Senate allocations are expected to adhere to the spending level limits set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, but unlike the House allocations, will likely also include additional funding provided by the “side deals” agreed to by President Biden and then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023.
Hearings
On Thursday the Senate Special Committee on Aging is scheduled to hold a hearing to examine health care transparency, focusing on lowering costs and empowering patients. Also on Thursday the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing to examine the medical debt crisis, focusing on how Federal policy solutions can eliminate and address the issue.
Regulatory Update
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed reviewing the following Medicare rules:
- Calendar Year (CY) Payment Updates – The CY 2025 proposed rule for Medicare Physician Fee Schedule and hospital outpatient departments and ambulatory surgical centers (June 2024).
- Interoperability – The proposed rule is intended to advance interoperability through proposals for: standards adoption; public health IT certification; expanded uses of certified application programming interfaces (APIs), such as for electronic prior authorization, patient engagement, care management, and care coordination; and information sharing under the information blocking regulations (July 2024).
Additionally, OMB is currently reviewing the following rules:
Medicare
- Fiscal Year (FY) Payment Updates – The FY 2025 final rules for hospitals and long-term care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities (August 2024).
Medicaid
- Drug Rebate Program – The final rule would establishes requirements related to manufacturers’ misclassification of covered outpatient drug products under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program (MDRP). In addition, it finalizes beneficiary protections, as well as MDRP program integrity and administration changes (June 2024).
Other Topics
- Healthcare System Resiliency and Modernization – The proposed rule would revise and update national emergency preparedness requirements for Medicare- and Medicaid-participating providers and suppliers (was set for December 2023).
- Tobacco Products – The final rule would prohibit the sale of tobacco products to persons younger than 21 years of age (was set for April 2024).
- Retail Pharmacy Standards – The final rule would require pharmacies and vendors to modify the currently adopted National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) standards to the Telecommunications Standard Implementation Guide Version F6 (F6); Batch Standard Implementation Guide version 15; and Batch Standard Subrogation Implementation Guide version 10 (was set for February 2024).