Legislative Call Agenda, Today, Thursday June 4th 3:00 PM EST

Legislative Committee Conference Call

• Democrat members of the Senate Finance Committee, along with Senate HELP Committee members met with President Obama and his senior White House Officials on the issue of health care.  The President would like a final bill on health system reform by October 1st.
• The Senate Finance Committee will release language on June 12th, with mark up starting on June 17th.  The Senate HELP Committee will release language on June 8th, with mark up starting on June 16th - the HELP legislation will be an outline instead of actual language.
• Assuming there are no slips in mark ups, the bill will be on the Senate floor in July.  The House will aim to have Congressional hearings in late June-early July, with Committee mark ups in early July, and the bill hitting the Floor in late July.

• At this time, there are no scheduled Committee Hearings in the immediate future.  Please look for annoucements from the Collaborative on future meetings.

• Release of Finance legislative proposal still unclear. Some reports indicate release around June 12th with mark ups the week following.
• Some reports indicate release of Senate HELP Committee legislative proposal is slated for next week.  The release may be an outline as opposed to actual language. Mark up may start the week of June 15th.  If the mark up slips a week, the release of language may slip accordingly.
• H.R. 2350, ' 'Preserving Patient Access to Primary Care Act of 2009', introduced by Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz, addresses the critical shortage of primary care providers. Primary care is essential to America’s health care system, and without a sufficient number of doctors, nurses and others providing primary care, Americans face long wait times to see their doctors and health care providers, as well as other obstacles to quality care. Already 107 members of Congress have signed on as cosponsors to the legislation. A companion bill is set to be introduced by Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA). A copy of the bill and a letter of support from the American Osteopathic Association are attached at the bottom of this email.   Additionally, please find a section-by-section summary of the bill attached.
• Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) introduced the bipartisan Medical Homes Act this week to improve health care quality by helping states implement patient-centered medical home programs under Medicaid and SCHIP.  For more information, please click here.
• 'The Kennedy Health Plan, Briefing Paper for Meeting of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions'. The Political Bear. 'A New Vision for American Health Care: Strengthening What Works and Fixing What Doesn’t. Overview and Background'. To read the full briefing, please click here.  The legislation would expand federal health care workforce development programs and create a Workforce Commission to strengthen the health workforce, the document said. The commission would recommend ways to ensure a sufficient supply of primary care physicians, nurses, and other practitioners, and the bill would create new grant programs to specially train health professionals in geriatric care to address special needs of a booming aging population, the document said.
  A new, voluntary national insurance program for individuals with disabilities and chronic illnesses also would be established by the legislation, providing these individuals with a cash benefit for medical expenses, according to the document.
  To qualify for benefits, individuals must have contributed monthly premiums through a voluntary payroll deduction for at least five years. Tiered benefits ($50-$100 per day) would be payable to individuals unable to perform two or more Activities of Daily Living or with the equivalent cognitive impairment.
  The program would be self-funded through participant premiums and would be a primary payer to Medicaid. Premiums would be limited to $65 per month; those with incomes below poverty would pay no more than $5 per month. Younger participants would pay less than older participants, and no one would pay more than $65 a month, the document said.
  The legislation also would establish a Health Care Program Integrity Coordinating Council to fight health care fraud and abuse and would create senior-level positions at the departments of Health and Human Services and Justice to coordinate health care anti-fraud activities, the document stated.
• Some reports on House action suggest Congressional hearings in late June or early July.  Committee mark ups would be in early July. 
• Linked here, please find anarticle from the Journal of the American Medical Association, entitled 'The Patient-Centered Medical Home, Will It Stand the Test of Health Reform?' by Diane R. Rittenhouse, MD, MPH and Stephen M. Shortell, PhD, MPH, MBA that discusses the potential of the PCMH to increase access and quality of health care over time, while decreasing the rate of growth in costs. 
• June 1, 2009 Judd Gregg Op-Ed – Better health care: balancing better options. To view, please click here.
• May 31st U.S. Today: Hurdles remain in Obama’s push to revamp healthcare. To view, please click here.
• May  31st Washington Post:  Health Reform’s Savings Myth. To view, please click here.
• May 30th Joint Statement from Baucus and Kennedy. To view, please click here.
• May 29th New York Times 2 Democrats Spearheading Health Bill Are Split. To view, please click here.
• May 28th Kennedy Op-Ed in Boston Globe. To view, please click here.
• May 27th release of Congressional Budget Office paper on scoring proposals in health care reform. To view, please click here.
• May 20th Coburn, Burr, Ryan, Nunnes release Patient Choice Act of 2009. To view, please click here.

• Reform Proposals - Physicians Offer Suggestions to White House For Reforming Health Care Delivery System
  • On May 27th, physicians offered the White House numerous suggestions for reforming the delivery of health care, including finding ways to train more primary care doctors, permanently fixing Medicare's physician reimbursement system, and streamlining billing procedures.
    At the latest in a series of White House meetings with health care stakeholder groups, 34 physicians said the current medical system is broken, with numerous participants saying a key to fixing the system is increasing the number of primary care doctors.
    The 90-minute meeting was led by White House Office of Health Reform Director Nancy-Ann DeParle.
    Lew Landsberg, dean of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, said many medical students are choosing specialty care over primary care because they are graduating with $150,000 in student loan debt. Given these circumstances, most do not want to be paid as little as $50,000 in their first job as a primary care doctor, he said.
    To get more students to become primary care practitioners, Landsberg suggested policymakers adopt a loan forgiveness program and provide financial incentives to get new physicians to establish practices in medically underserved areas.'

• On May 18th the Committee released Baucus, Grassley Policy Options for Financing Comprehensive Health Care Reform: Proposed Health System Savings and Revenue Options. To view, please click here.
• On May 12th the Committee held a Roundtable Discussion on "Financing Comprehensive Health Care Reform". To view, please click here.
• On May 11 the Committee released the Baucus-Grassley paper styled Description of Policy Options: Expanding Health Care Coverage: Proposals to Provide Affordable Coverage to All Americans Baucus, Grassley Policy Options for Expanding Health Care Coverage:   Proposals to Provide Affordable Coverage to All Americans. To view, please click here.
• On May 5 the Committee held a Roundtable Discussion on "Expanding Health Care Coverage". To view, please click here.
• On April 28th the Committee released: Baucus, Grassley Policy Options for Transforming the Health Care Delivery System: Proposals to Improve Patient Care and Reduce Health Care Costs. To view, please click here.
• On April 21st the Committee held a Roundtable to Discuss Reforming America’s Health Care Delivery System. To view, please click here.

• The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) has requested ideas to implement and expand the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) in the following areas: (1) Workforce Supply Issue, (2) Consumer Barriers (financial and others), and (3) Data Collection.
• 'The Kennedy Health Plan, Briefing Paper for Meeting of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions'. The Political Bear. 'A New Vision for American Health Care: Strengthening What Works and Fixing What Doesn’t. Overview and Background'. To read the full briefing, please click here.  
• On May 14th the Committee held a Full Committee Hearing - Delivery Reform: The Roles of Primary and Specialty Care in Innovative New Delivery Models. To view, please click here.
• On March 24th the Committee held a  Full Committee Roundtable Hearing - Addressing Insurance Market Reform in National Health Reform. To view, please click here.
• On February 26th the Committee held a Full Committee Hearing - Integrative Care: A Pathway to a Healthier Nation. To view, please click here.
• On February 5th the Committee held a Full Committee Hearing - Implementing Best Patient Care Practices. To view, please click here.