OVERNIGHT HEALTH: CLASS Act, Medicaid fight looming

Thune weighs in: Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) on Wednesday asked Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) for a hearing on the CLASS Act. Thune’s concerns: The cost of the coverage, how HHS changes to the program could affect the federal budget, and an examination of HHS’s actuarial models. 

Hatch preps MOE bill: When Congress returns from next week’s recess, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is expected to drop legislation to repeal the 2009 stimulus and healthcare reform requirements for states to maintain Medicaid eligibility standards. Cash-strapped states have asked Sebelius to pull back the so-called “maintenance of effort” (MOE) requirement as they try to close massive budget gaps. Hatch, the Senate Finance Committee’s top Republican, said a new Congressional Research Service report proves that HHS has the authority to waive the MOE requirement, but HHS says otherwise.

One more thing to fight about? Republican lawmakers are increasingly concerned about a pending regulation that will seek to clarify what states can do with their Medicaid rates. 

Several medical providers have sued states, claiming that low reimbursement rates violate the Medicaid statute because beneficiaries can’t access care if there are too few providers. In its argument to dissuade the Supreme Court from getting involved, the Obama administration last December said it was working on regulations that may resolve any concerns. 

Now Republicans want to know what HHS has is mind. Julian Pecquet has the story.

Senate Dems support Planned Parenthood: Nineteen Senate Democrats signed onto a letter urging Vice President Joe Biden to block Republican attempts to withhold federal funding for Planned Parenthood through the budget process. The House voted to defund the organization in H.R. 1, but recent short-term stopgap measures have avoided the Planned Parenthood question in the interest of keeping the government running. Read the Healthwatch story.

Abortion rights group teams up with MoveOn: EMILY’s List and the progressive group are collaborating on a campaign to combat House Republicans’ anti-abortion push, which include efforts to defund Planned Parenthood. The campaign includes petitions, grassroots advocacy and paid media.

Report finds variation in insurance denials: Health insurers denied nearly one in five applications in the first quarter of 2010, but the rate of denials varied greatly by insurer, according to a Government Accountability Office report. For example, nearly one-fourth of insurers had denial rates of 0 to 15 percent, while another fourth had rates of 40 percent or higher.

Abortion bill could hurt research credits: A bill that would end tax breaks for private health plans could have wide-ranging implications for tax credits, a House Ways and Means subcommittee heard on Wednesday. The way Rep. Chris Smith’s (R-N.J.) No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act is currently written could hurt research, small business and other tax credits, the Joint Committee on Taxation’s chief of staff told the committee in a hearing.

After the hearing, subpanel chairman Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio) said it wasn’t the “intent” of the bill authors to change research tax credits. “That’s something we want to try to tighten up,” Tiberi told The Hill.

Sound familiar?: Rep Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), who opposes the bill’s restrictions on abortion coverage, said the bill would place a burden on small business owners to find out whether their health insurance covers abortion. He compared it to the 1099 reporting requirement in the healthcare reform law, a provision that lawmakers want to scrap.

“Why are we adding these new job-killing, onerous provision on small businesses,” Crowley said during the hearing. 

Norquist backs H.R. 3: Grover Norquist, who heads Americans for Tax Reform, said
his group is OK with H.R. 3, the abortion act, because the Congressional Budget Office said
the bill has “negligible effects on tax revenues.” Rerports earlier
this week suggested Norquist had concerns the bill would raise taxes,
but he dismissed those on Thursday. “Attempts to claim otherwise are not
based on reality, but on mere political gamesmanship of the lowest
order,” he wrote to the Ways and Means Committee.

Medical device group gets new government rep.: JC Scott, most recently the vice president of federal relations for the American Council of Life Insurers, will lead government affairs for the Advanced Medical Technology Association.

Stick a needle in it: Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) is looking for co-sponsors for his Federal Acupuncture Coverage Act. This would provide access to acupuncture for people covered by Medicare and the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program.

Light reading: The Medicare agency has released a proposed decision memo for Erythropoiesis Stimulating Agents (ESAs) for Treatment of Anemia in Adults with kidney disease.

Thursday’s agenda:

HELP’s turn: A day after the Senate Finance Committee Democrats held a hearing to celebrate the first anniversay of the healthcare reform law, the Senate HELP Committee will look at implementation efforts. Scheduled to testify: Steve Larsen, director of HHS’s Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight; Sandy Praeger, Kansas insurance commissioner; and Joshua Sharfstein, secretary of Maryland’s health department.

Health and retirement: The House Budget Committee holds a hearing on healthcare and retirement security. Alice Rivlin, of the Rivlin-Ryan Medicare plan, will testify. Here’s the agenda.

Genetics in healthcare: Texas Reps. Michael Burgess (R) and Charles Gonzalez (D) will discuss the present and future of genetic testing during a breakfast hosted by The Hill. The event, sponsored by the American Clinical Laboratory Association, starts at 7:45 a.m. in the Reserve Officers Association building. 

FDA focus on menthol: The Food and Drug Administration’s tobacco advisory committee meets to discuss finalizing a report on the use of menthol in cigaretts. Here’s the agenda.

Reading list:

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) is pitching a plan that would cut Medicaid by 120,000 people instead of 280,000, reports the Tucson Citizen.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that babies born today can expect to live longer than ever in U.S. history, USA Today writes.

The National Council on Aging argues that conservatives should love the CLASS Act.

Bargain Lipitor could raise heatlhcare costs, Matthew Herper blogs in Forbes. 

What you might have missed on Healthwatch:

– Hatch says the administration’s implementation of healthcare reform fails the transparency test.

– About 9 million adults lost their health insurance over the past two years, according to a new report. 

– More than 150,000 seniors have taken advantage of new annual wellness visits over the past two months. 

Comments / complaints / suggestions?

Please let us know:

Julian Pecquet: jpecquet@digital-staging.thehill.com / 202-628-8527

Jason Millman: jmillman@digital-staging.thehill.com / 202-628-8351