In Washington...
BBA relief campaign continues. On the heels of the first AAMC/AHA teaching hospital advocacy day this year in Washington on May 10th - which attracted more than 130 hospital leaders from 32 states - Partners CEO Samuel Thier, MD, met with Senator Edward Kennedy to map out the remainder of this year’s campaign for additional BBA relief. Sen. Kennedy will host another teaching hospital “teach-in” for Senators in June, to which HHS Secretary Donna Shalala will be invited.
House and Senate take first steps on FY 2001 NIH appropriations, funding for medical error reduction. Appropriators have now completed the first step in the process for funding NIH next year. The full Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a $2.7 billion increase (15 percent) for FY 2001 with the relevant House subcommittee adopting only $1 billion (5.6 percent). Despite the low House number, Subcommittee Chairman John Porter (R-IL) reiterated his support for doubling the NIH budget and has committed to getting to that level by the end of the process. Both bills also contain money to fund medical error reduction efforts.
Worth noting...
According to the AHA, HCFA has missed two
deadlines in the implementation schedule for the
outpatient prospective payment system. The schedule was negotiated by AHA to assure that hospitals have sufficient time to implement the new system before its July 1 effective date.
According to HBS International Inc., a provider
of outcomes-management systems to the health
care industry, hospital operating margins dropped
47 percent in the past three years. The largest hospitals demonstrated the most dramatic decline, the Northeast was hardest hit, and the South Atlantic had the best operating margin in 1999.
And on Beacon Hill...
Senate budget makes health and education the priorities. The long-awaited Senate FY 2001 budget proposal emerged in May. It is leaner than the House bill but makes larger investments in health care, including a $52 million nursing home initiative, a $25 million senior pharmacy proposal and improvements in Medicaid reimbursements for hospitals, dentists, and community health centers (see details below). It also includes Senate Health Committee Chairman Moore’s (D-Uxbridge) proposal for reducing medical errors (with voluntary reporting of near misses) and would establish a health law unit within the Attorney General’s office to investigate anything that jeopardizes the availability, affordability, or quality of health care delivery in the Commonwealth.
Medicaid relief looks more likely given Senate budget. The Senate budget proposal also
contains some good news on the Medicaid front. The package includes the same $25 million increase in Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals that the House has adopted. It also contains funds for community health centers, including $6.8 million for increased Medicaid reimbursements (the House proposed $4 million), $5 million for community health center expansions (same as the House), and $5 million for expanding school-based health centers (same as the House).
Finally, the Senate adopted general language calling for prompt payment to hospitals by insurers, but did not include the “teeth” we believe are necessary for any such law to have real effect. Since the House did not address this issue, it will be debated by the conference committee and, we hope, improved.
The next step in the process is for a House-Senate conference committee to resolve the
differences in the two bills.