CQ's Carey Discusses GAO Report On Medicare Advantage, Mental Health Parity Bill, Indian Health Service Reauthorization, Global AIDS Programs

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Mental Health;  Health Insurance / Medical Insurance;  HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 04 Mar 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, examines a Government Accountability Office report on Medicare Advantage costs, a scheduled House vote on mental health parity legislation, Senate approval of the Indian Health Service reauthorization bill and House approval of legislation that reauthorizes President Bush's global AIDS programs in this week's "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ."

According to Carey, the GAO report found that for some services, MA beneficiaries pay higher out-of-pocket costs than beneficiaries in traditional Medicare. House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) said that the report provides evidence that MA plans are paid too much by Medicare. The subcommittee's ranking member, Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), said that the report was flawed and that it does little to analyze the experience of most beneficiaries enrolled in MA plans. According to Carey, the report will put pressure on MA plan providers to send CMS more data. She adds that Democrats may try to include MA plan payment reductions in a spending reconciliation bill, but Bush and Republicans likely would reject cuts to the program.

According to Carey, the House has scheduled a vote on mental health parity legislation that would require insurers offering mental health benefits to make them equal in cost and scope to medical benefits. The bill also would broaden a 1996 measure that prohibits plans from setting different lifetime or annual limits for mental health coverage than for other illnesses. The Senate has passed a more limited version of the measure, according to Carey.

Carey also discusses Senate approval of the IHS reauthorization measure, which would provide $35 billion in funding through fiscal year 2017. House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said he is not seeking major changes to the bill but might try to eliminate some of the Senate amendments.

Lastly, Carey discusses a voice vote by the House Foreign Affairs Committee to approve a measure that would authorize $50 billion over the next five years for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. According to Carey, the measure would ease some of the policy constraints, such as replacing the current requirement that one-third of all funding go toward abstinence-only education with a new requirement for evidence-based, "balanced funding" for abstinence, fidelity and condom programs (Carey, "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ," 3/3).

The complete audio version of "Health on the Hill," transcript and resources for further research are available online at kaisernetwork.org.

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.