CQ's Carey Addresses Health IT Legislation, Medicare Payments, Abortion Bill

Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, discusses the House's passage of health information technology legislation, Medicare physician payments and an abortion-related bill passed last week by the Senate that would allow federal charges to be filed against individuals violating parental consent and notification laws in this week's "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ." Carey notes that the House last week voted 270-148 to approve a bill (S 1418) that would promote use of health IT. The bill differs from one (HR 4157) the Senate approved in November 2005 on privacy, funding and other issues. In other news, lawmakers in the House and Senate have said that they want to take action this year to reverse a scheduled 5% reduction in Medicare physician payments. Carey notes that such a plan could be difficult because of the complexity of the issue, the limited amount of time left in the congressional session and funding needed to reverse the cut. CMS Administrator Mark McClellan told lawmakers that CMS would work with them to address the payment issue but said that legislators would need to implement new quality measures and other steps before putting more funds into the payments. Finally, Carey talks about a bill (S 403) approved by the Senate that would establish as a federal crime the act of taking pregnant minors across state lines to avoid parental notification and contsent laws to obtain abortions. The House has passed a similar bill (HR 748), though some Democrats objected to immediately beginning a House-Senate conference to reconcile the legislation (Carey, "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ," 7/31).

The complete audio version of "Health on the Hill," transcript and resources for further research are available online.

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