This Week in Washington: Congress Focuses on FDA User Fee Legislation, Telehealth and Continuing Resolution; Administration Issues Executive Order on Biomanufacturing

Congress

House

House Passes Legislation to Streamline Prior Authorization in Medicare Advantage

On Sept. 14, the House unanimously passed legislation by voice vote to streamline the Medicare Advantage prior authorization system. The vote came shortly after the Energy & Commerce health subcommittee unanimously passed a version of the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act earlier in the day. A vast majority of the House cosponsored the bill, along with 40 senators in the upper chamber. It is expected that the legislation will be part of the year-end package in the Senate.

The bill establishes an electronic prior authorization process for Medicare Advantage, as well as a real-time approvals process for routinely approved products and services, and increased data transparency surrounding MA and the prior authorization process. Prior authorization in MA has come under fire after a controversial HHS Office of the Inspector General report found inappropriate denials.

The legislation was sponsored in the House by Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Mike Kelly (R-PA), Ami Bera (D-CA) and Larry Bucshon (R-IN). It had more than 320 cosponsors.

Bipartisan Legislation Introduced to Mitigate Physician Fee Schedule Cuts

On Sept. 13, Reps. Ami Bera (D-CA) and Larry Bucshon (R-IN) introduced legislation to mitigate CMS’s proposed physician fee schedule cuts slated for 2023. Physicians have been concerned about reductions in the fee schedule since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the fee schedule for 2023. CMS proposed a 4.4 percent decrease in the conversion factor for 2023. While the rule is not yet final, there is concern CMS may not have the ability to make changes to increase reimbursement as it has with other pay rules in the past, because some of the fee reductions CMS proposed were tied to evaluation and management changes already in place, because of prior years’ cuts mitigated by Congress and because Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) set up pay updates of the fee schedule, which includes a 0 percent pay update for 2023.

Bera and Bucshon also recently asked stakeholders how to change MACRA. They also introduced a Sense of Congress that the Department of Health and Human Services and the House and Senate should work to ensure Medicare’s payment system is predictable and stable.

Senate

Senate Pushed to Pass Extension of Pandemic Telehealth Waivers

On Sept. 13, a group of 375 telehealth stakeholders sent a letter to the Senate urging it to pass a two-year extension of pandemic telehealth waivers that also includes access to clinically appropriate controlled substances without in-person prescribing requirements and pre-deductible coverage for telehealth services under high-deductible health plans. Senate movement on the House-passed telehealth extensions, coupled with the controlled substances and HDHP waivers, would give stakeholders an extra couple years to lobby for permanent reforms.

The Alliance for Connected Care, American Telemedicine Association (ATA), College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), Connected Health Initiative, Consumer Technology Association, Executives for Health Innovation, Health Innovation Alliance, HIMSS and Partnership to Advance Virtual Care organized the coordinated effort among the nearly 400 telehealth stakeholders.

The groups are asking the Senate to pass a two-year extension of pandemic telehealth flexibilities, as the House recently did when it passed HR 4040. However, the groups also want to extend a provision that lets health plans offer coverage of telehealth services pre-deductible to people enrolled in high-deductible health plans linked to health savings accounts or remove in-person requirements for prescription of controlled substances via telehealth, which is not included in the House bill.

The Joint Committee on Taxation and Congressional Budget Office scored the temporary HDHP provision included in the CARES Act at $90 million a year. Ninety-six percent of employers adopted the pre-deductible coverage for telehealth services under the CARES Act and 76 percent would like to make the provision permanent, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute issue brief on pre-deductible coverage in HSA-eligible health plans.

HELP Committee Members Write

This week, a group of 29 Democrats led by Senate HELP Committee chair Patty Murray (D-WA) wrote to Secretary of HHS Becerra urging the administration to strengthen federal privacy protections under the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to broadly restrict providers from sharing patients’ reproductive health information without their explicit consent—particularly with law enforcement or in legal proceedings over accessing abortion care. The senators specifically said HHS should update the HIPAA Privacy Rule to prevent covered entities from sharing reproductive health information, especially for purposes of potential criminal or civil proceedings. The senators also said HHS should increase education for patients about their rights under the HIPAA Privacy Rule and should ensure all cases involving reproductive health information receive timely compliance and enforcement response.

Read more on healthcare policy in McGuireWoods Consulting’s Washington Healthcare Update.