Summary
The House comes back in session on Tuesday afternoon after last week’s recess, while the Senate is on a two-week recess for the July 4th holiday. The House will primarily focus on fiscal year (FY) 2025 appropriations bills this week as the Department of Defense, State and Foreign Operations, and Homeland Security bills are all on deck for floor action in the latter half of the week. The Rules Committee will first need to sort through the nearly 800 proposed amendments to the three bills.
Meanwhile, on the Committee level, the Commerce-Justice-Science, Labor-HHS-Education, Transportation-HUD, Interior-Environment and Energy-Water bills will be marked up in Subcommittee this week. These are the final five 2025 bills to be marked up. The full Committee will bring them up the week after the July 4th recess. Reminiscent of last year, many of the House bills contain controversial provisions that have no chance of surviving the Senate, not to mention the Labor-HHS bill is roughly $10 billion below last year’s level.
Attention this week will also be on Presidential politics as the first of two debates between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will occur on Thursday, much earlier than the typical Presidential debate schedule.
Hearings:
Senate Judiciary Committee: On Tuesday the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution will hold a field hearing in Phoenix, Arizona to examine the patchwork of abortion restrictions across America since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
House Ways and Means Committee: On Wednesday the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing to examine the challenges and opportunities associated with delivering better health outcomes and Medicare savings through value-based care.
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).
- 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).