Summary
The House and Senate are both in recess in order to focus on campaigning for the upcoming election, leaving a very quiet Capitol Hill. There are just three more weeks left until the November 5 election, and there is still no clear front winner in the race for President. Vice President Harris will sit down with radio host Charlemagne tha God for a town hall event in Michigan today and has agreed to an interview with conservative Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday. Former President Donald Trump will be interviewed in Chicago and then will head to Atlanta for a Fox News town hall with an all-female audience. Today’s events follow an interesting town hall yesterday in which he spent 40 minutes swaying to music as paramedics attended to two medical emergencies in the audience.
The run for control of the House and Senate is equally up in the air as leaders of both parties are travelling across the country in order to help members in tight elections. As a reminder, our election preview where we try to make sense of the political uncertainty by comparing the policy positions of each Presidential candidate on key health and healthcare social issues, forecasting the health policy priorities of the 119th Congress, and identifying potentially new leaders of key Congressional Committees can be found here. If you have had enough of the traditional election press coverage, may we recommend a fun Washington Post story on the fast food choices of both parties.
Regulatory Update
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is currently reviewing the following rules:
Medicare
- Physician Payment – The final rule would make changes to the Medicare physician fee schedule for calendar year 2025 (November 2024).
- Outpatient Payment – The final rule would make changes to the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system for calendar year 2025 (November 2024).
- Home Health – The final rule would make changes to the Medicare home health prospective payment system for calendar year 2025 (November 2024).
- ESRD – The final rule would make changes to the Medicare End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) payment system for calendar year 2025 (November 2024).
- Medicare Advantage – The proposed rule would make policy and technical changes to the Medicare Advantage, Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, and Medicare Cost Plan Programs, and PACE for contract year 2026 (September 2024).
Private Insurance
- Preventive Services – The proposed rule is titled, “Enhancing Coverage of Preventive Services under the Affordable Care Act.” It was not included in the latest Unified Agenda.
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).
- 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).
- Organ Transplants – The final rule would establish a new mandatory Medicare payment model, the Increasing Organ Transplant Access Model (IOTA Model), that would test whether performance-based incentive payments paid to or owed by participating kidney transplant hospitals increase access to kidney transplants for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) while preserving or enhancing the quality of care and reducing Medicare expenditures.