[NYAPRS Enews] MNT: Tied to War Spending, Bills to Delay Medicaid Regs Run into House Trouble

[Matt Canuteson]

Senate, House Delay Votes On Supplemental War Appropriations Bills With
Provisions To Delay Medicaid Regulations

Medical News Today   May 12, 2008

 

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday delayed a scheduled mark
up of a $193 billion supplemental war appropriations bill that includes
a provision to block for one year seven new Medicaid regulations
proposed by the Bush administration, as well as additional funds for
FDA, CQ Today reports. According to CQ Today, committee Chair Robert
Byrd (D-W.Va.) decided to move the mark up to May 15 at the request of
Senate and House leadership after "dissension forced House Democrats to
delay until next week bringing the supplemental [bill] to the floor."

 

The Senate version of the bill includes $275 million for FDA, $400
million for NIH to fund about 700 research grants, $437 million for the
construction of polytrauma centers administered by the Department of
Veterans Affairs and $350 million for hospitals in Louisiana and
Mississippi as part of relief from Hurricane Katrina. 

 

In addition, the legislation includes a provision that would ban
construction of new physician-owned specialty hospitals. The provision
also would require the 100 to 200 specialty hospitals currently in
operation to disclose their ownership interests to patients. According
to a Senate Republican aide, the provision would save $2.4 billion over
10 years, in large part through decreased growth in the number of
medical procedures billed to Medicare (Higa/Clarke, CQ Today, 5/8).

 

According to the Washington Post, the bill might "face a Republican
filibuster because of its price tag, raising the possibility that the
Senate would turn to the House bill," but, "if Democrats can round up
the 60 votes needed to fight off GOP objections," the Senate will "send
a bill with war funds and domestic spending back to the House" (Kane,
Washington Post, 5/9). 

 

Grassley Seeks Removal of Medicaid, Specialty Hospital Provisions 

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on
Thursday asked Byrd and Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member
Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) to remove the Medicaid provision and the
specialty hospital provision from the Senate version of the bill,
CongressDaily reports. In a letter to Byrd and Cochran, Grassley wrote
that the provisions "should only be considered by the Finance
Committee," which has "done significant work on this issue over the
years including holding hearings and conducting investigations."

However, Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) supports
the inclusion of the provisions in the legislation, according to a
Senate aide (Edney, CongressDaily, 5/9). 

 

Blue Dog Coalition Opposition 

In the House, a "revolt" by the Blue Dog Coalition has prompted Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to delay a floor vote on the House version of
the bill until next week, CQ Today reports. The coalition opposes the
legislation because of a lack of offsets for some of the funds that the
bill would provide.

Coalition leader Rep. Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) said that he has begun to work
with the House Ways and Means Committee to find offsets for the funds.
Mike Ross (D-Ark.), coalition co-chair for communications, said that an
"overwhelming majority" of coalition members will oppose the legislation
without the offsets (Higa/Clarke, CQ Today, 5/8). 

According to the Post, without the votes of "most of the 47 Blue Dogs,
the domestic spending provisions would have great difficulty passing the
House" (Washington Post, 5/9). House Democratic leaders plan to move the
bill to the floor on May 14 (Higa/Rogin, CQ Today, 5/8). 

 

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/107013.php 

 

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