Senate HELP Committee Approves Three Health-Related Bills

Main Category: Public Health
Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience;  Rehabilitation / Physical Therapy;  IT / Internet / E-mail
Article Date: 03 Jul 2007 - 20:00 PDT

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The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Wednesday approved three bills related to health care. Summaries of news coverage appear below.

• Brain injury: The committee by voice vote approved a bill (S 793) to reauthorize programs established by a 1996 law that allows CDC to provide state grants for patients to enter treatment and rehabilitation programs for traumatic brain injuries, CQ Today reports. The legislation also would require CDC to monitor and track brain injury cases and study techniques to improve treatment. In addition, the bill would require NIH to conduct basic research on brain injuries to improve treatment (Itkowitz [1], CQ Today, 6/27).
  
  
• Information technology: The committee by voice vote approved a bill (S 1693) that would require government purchases of health care IT to meet basic standards on information exchange determined by a committee of government and private-sector experts, CQ Today reports. The legislation also would authorize $278 million in fiscal years 2008 and 2009 for competitive matching grants for regional and local health care IT networks over five years (Itkowitz [2], CQ Today, 6/27).
  
  
• NIH: The committee unanimously approved a bill to change the names of several of the institutions within NIH to highlight that addiction is a disease, although the responsibilities of the institutions would remain the same, CongressDaily reports. The legislation would change the name of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to the National Institute on Alcohol Disorders and Health and would change the name of the National Institute on Drug Abuse to the National Institute on Diseases of Addiction (Edney, CongressDaily, 6/28).

Rural Health Care Bill
In other legislative news, the bipartisan House Rural Health Care Coalition on Wednesday introduced a bill (HR 2860) to require that pharmacists in rural areas with few physicians receive reimbursement within 30 days for paper claims and 14 days for electronic claims filed with Medicare prescription drug plans, CQ HealthBeat reports. The legislation also would authorize $20 million to $30 million annually in grants to help rural health clinics purchase health care IT.

In addition, the bill would remove the cap for Medicare add-ons in rural hospitals; equalize reimbursements for rural hospitals with those for urban hospitals; and allow rural hospitals with fewer than 50 beds to receive 100% "reasonable cost reimbursement" for clinical tests covered under Medicare Part B that are provided as outpatient services (Bartolf, CQ HealthBeat, 6/27).

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