Washington Roundup: August 2, 2024

Roll Call notes,

• “The Department of Veterans Affairs is facing a nearly $15 billion combined budget shortfall this fiscal year and next, and congressional Republicans are crying foul at the last-minute notification about a funding crisis lawmakers have little time to try to fix."
• “VA officials told lawmakers on July 15 that the agency needs $2.9 billion in mandatory spending for veterans’ pensions and other benefits to cover a gap for the remaining months of the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. And they need another $12 billion in discretionary medical care funds for next year on top of what was provided in a March appropriations package or in the fiscal 2025 House and Senate Military Construction-VA bills."
• “The notification came after the House passed its fiscal 2025 Military Construction-VA bill on June 5, and after the Senate Appropriations Committee marked up its version on July 11.” * * *"
• “According to agency officials, the crux of the issue is increased demand for health care services amid implementation of a 2022 law that expanded access for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxins while serving in combat zones. Previously, veterans who got sick needed to prove their illnesses were directly tied to their military service; now, the presumption is such diseases are service-connected."
• “Over the last 365 days, 412,867 veterans have enrolled in VA care — a 27 percent increase compared to the previous year, VA press secretary Terrence Hayes said Thursday.” * * *"
• “It’s not clear how lawmakers will move to address the shortfall.”

Supreme Court journalist Amy L. Howe shares the Supreme Court’s October and November 2023 oral argument calendars.

Fierce Healthcare reports,

• “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is creating a voluntary demonstration program to support changes to Medicare Part D under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)."
• “The agency also finalized bid information for contract year 2025, with a base beneficiary premium increase of $2.08 for people with Part D."
• “The IRA is designed to limit yearly premium increases from contract year 2024 to 2029. Because Part D and prescription drug plans can result in plan price variation for beneficiaries, CMS is creating the Part D Premium Stabilization Demonstration to “improve premium stability for participating stand-alone prescription drug plans,” according to a news release."
• “This should result in a smoother rollout in how the IRA requires Medicare to support Part D prescription plans. The program will test whether even more financial requirements would improve the Part D program, a senior CMS official said Monday afternoon.”

Here is the link to the CMS fact sheet for the Part D demonstration project and bid information. 

American Hospital Association News lets us know,

• “The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services July 30 issued a final rule updating hospice payment rates for fiscal year 2025. Overall, CMS finalized a 2.9% net increase to payments compared with FY 2024. This includes a 3.4% market basket update and a 0.5 percentage point cut for productivity. As a result of this increase, the hospice payment cap will be increased from $33,494.01 to $34,465.34. CMS also finalized adoption of the most recent Office of Management and Budget statistical area delineations, which will affect the wage index used by some providers. In addition, the rule adopts a new patient-level data collection tool to replace the existing Hospice Item Set and also adds two new process measures beginning in FY 2028.” 

Here is a link to the CMS fact sheet on the hospice payment rates. 

The Washington Post informs us,

• “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is launching a $5 million initiative to provide seasonal flu shots this fall to about 200,000 livestock workers in states hardest hit by the bird flu outbreak.
• “Workers on poultry, dairy and pig farms are at greatest risk of being simultaneously exposed to seasonal flu and the H5N1 bird flu that has infected at least 172 dairy herds in 13 states, according to the Department of Agriculture. Such exposures raise the rare risk of the two viruses exchanging genetic material, a process known as reassortment, to create a new influenza virus that “could pose a significant public health concern by becoming more efficient at spread and potentially more severe,” Nirav Shah, CDC’s principal deputy director, said at a news briefing Tuesday. Widespread seasonal flu vaccination would reduce that risk, he said.
• “Thirteen farmworkers have been infected in the outbreak. All had mild symptoms and recovered.

Per an HHS press release,

• "Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released the results of the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which shows how people living in United States reported their experience with mental health conditions, substance use and pursuit of treatment. The 2023 NSDUH report includes selected estimates by race, ethnicity and age group. The report is accompanied by two infographics offering visually packaged highlight data as well as visual data by race and ethnicity."

The press release includes key findings from the survey. 

HHS’s Office for Civil Rights amended its Change Healthcare Cybersecurity Incident FAQ three to read as follows:

• “3. Have Change Healthcare or UHG filed a breach report with HHS?"
• “A: Yes, on July 19, 2024, Change Healthcare filed a breach report with OCR concerning a ransomware attack that resulted in a breach of protected health information. Change Healthcare’s breach report to OCR identifies 500 individuals as the “approximate number of individuals affected”. This is the minimum number of individuals affected that results in a posting of a breach on the HHS Breach Portal. Change Healthcare is still determining the number of individuals affected. The posting on the HHS Breach Portal will be amended if Change Healthcare updates the total number of individuals affected by this breach. HIPAA breach reports filed on the HHS Breach Portal may be amended as the breach report form allows a filer to file an initial breach report or an addendum to a previous report.”