SENATE STAYING BUSY

The House has started its August recess, so members are out until September 9, 2024. The Senate is in session, before joining the House in recess next week.

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold a full committee markup of three bills focused on reauthorizing the Older Americans Act, passing the Autism CARES Act and reauthorizing the Traumatic Brain Injury Program. The Senate Committee on Appropriations also plans to complete consideration of the final appropriations bills, including the US Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies.

Several other hearings may have health-related implications, even though they are not exclusively focused on healthcare policy. For example, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing on banning noncompete agreements will have an orthopedic surgeon as a witness, highlighting how this issue impacts the health sector. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation will markup dozens of bills, including at least six focused on artificial intelligence (AI), and we know that AI regulations have significant implications in healthcare.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is leading efforts for Senate passage of the Kids Online Safety Act, which would create more requirements for social media and other online platforms to ideally provide a safer online environment for kids and teens. Should this bill pass, it would still need to get through the House, where Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) has noted her support. This legislation could become a driver for an Energy and Commerce markup of additional items in the committee, such as telehealth. But, it’s unclear how much work – beyond a continuing resolution to let them leave town again – Congress actually plans for September.

The Administration will, of course, still be hard at work finishing out the remaining months of the Biden presidency and hoping to pass the baton to a Harris Administration (we had to get in an Olympics reference). We anticipate that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will release the Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System final rule at some point this week. We expect CMS to finalize proposals such as increasing payment rates for quality reporting efforts, providing separate payments for small independent hospitals to stock essential medicines, and responding to the maternal health crisis.

The Preview will take a recess along with Congress until September 9, although we may publish on an as-needed basis in the interim. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy a bit of a recess as well.

TODAY’S PODCAST

On this week’s Healthcare Preview podcast, Debbie Curtis and Rodney Whitlock join Julia Grabo to preview the Senate’s final in-session week before recess, and discuss what staffers will be working on and congressional priorities before the end of the year.