capitol hill report: URGE SENATE TO ACT ON MEDICARE PAYMENT STABILITY
October 24, 2022
Latest Advocacy News
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Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and John Barrasso (R-WY) are circulating a sign-on letter on Capitol Hill to highlight concerns regarding the stability of Medicare payments for physicians and express support for bipartisan, long-term payment reforms. This letter closes on October 28; urge your senators to co-sign this letter today.
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On October 14, President Biden signed an executive order directing the Department of Health and Human Services to select for testing new health care payment and delivery models that would lower drug costs and promote access to innovative drug therapies for beneficiaries enrolled in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The AAN will closely monitor the implementation of this executive order and will submit formal comments in response to proposals impacting neurologists and neurology patients.
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On October 13, the secretary of Health and Human Services renewed the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency declaration. As such, all related flexibilities will remain in place for another 90 days. The Biden administration has committed to giving stakeholders at least 60 days' notice prior to terminating the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.
Issue in Focus
On October 19, the AAN cohosted a Congressional Appropriations Briefing on the BRAIN Initiative. The Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, generously supported by Congress through the regular appropriations process, and with funds from the 21st Century Cures Act, is helping advance our understanding of the body’s most complex organ. The AAN has been advocating for sustained funding for the BRAIN Initiative through NIH for several years. Cohosting this briefing provided visibility into the program for congressional staffers to understand the importance of this continued funding.
The BRAIN Initiative has been funded since FY2014 where it started at $40M, and Cures funding is currently authorized through FY26. To date, the BRAIN Initiative has invested over $3 billion in more than 1,300 research projects, engaging scientists from many areas of expertise as well as mathematicians, engineers, physicians in individual labs, and inter-disciplinary teams. By accelerating the development and application of innovative technologies, researchers can show how individual cells and complex neural circuits in the brain interact with both time and space.
This hour-long discussion with BRAIN Initiative Director John Ngai, PhD, and AAN Health Policy Subcommittee Vice Chair Justin T. Jordan, MD, MPH, FAAN, shared the successes of the initiative in cell and neural circuit research that will lay the groundwork in developing new treatments for brain-related affliction. View the briefing.
What We're Reading
- The Wild West of Health Workforce Policy (Podcast: Tradeoffs)
- Amylyx sets ALS drug price at $158,000 per year, opening new debate on cost (BioPharmaDive)
- Finally Fixing the ‘Family Glitch’ (Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’)
- The Biden administration’s next challenge: Paying for discount drug mistakes (Axios)