Summary
The House is on recess this week, while the Senate will come back into session this afternoon before taking a break on Wednesday for the Juneteenth federal holiday. They will come back into session on Thursday and Friday. The Senate floor schedule this week is mostly focused on nominations. On the Committee level Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) is holding a press call today to unveil his maternal health care legislation, which is expected to be introduced this week.
Prior to recessing, the House was able to pass the NDAA bill on a mostly partisan basis after Republicans attached divisive amendments that will restrict abortion access, medical treatment for transgender troops and eliminate efforts to combat climate change. Progress was also made on fiscal year (FY) 2025 appropriations bills as the House Appropriations Committee has marked up 6 of the 12 bills. Reminiscent of last year, many of the House bills contain controversial provisions that have no chance of surviving the Senate. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) intends to finish marking up the remaining 6 bills prior August recess.
With only four legislative weeks left before the August recess, and the first Presidential debate less than two weeks away, the House and Senate are both starting to move away from bipartisan legislative activity and will increasingly bring up more political messaging bills as we move towards the election. We will also see Republicans leadership starting to lay the groundwork for what they will do if Mr. Trump is successful in winning the White House, including repealing the Inflation Reduction Act and extending the tax cuts passed in the first Trump Administration that are set to expire in 2025.
Regulatory Update
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is currently reviewing the following rules:
Medicare
- Calendar Year (CY) Payment Updates – The CY 2025 revisions to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule, the CY 2025 Hospital Outpatient PPS Policy Changes and Payment Rates and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment System Policy Changes and Payment Rates proposed rule, the CY 2025 Changes to the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System and Quality Incentive Program proposed rule (June 2024), and the CY 2025 Home Health PPS Rate Update proposed rule (June 2024).
- Medicare Shared Savings Program – A proposed rule titled, “Mitigating the Impact of Anomalous Increases in Billing on Medicare Shared Savings Program Financial Calculations.” The proposal is likely intended to address concerns about fraudulent billing for catheters. It was not included in the latest Unified Agenda.
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).
- Health IT – The proposed rule would 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 (was set for November 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).