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DGR Telephone:
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Follow APA Advocacy on Twitter!
The APA Department of Government Relations is now on Twitter! Now you can find out about APA Advocacy activities, Congressional hearings, mark-ups, and floor votes in real time.
Please click on the following link to start following APA Advocacy Twitter:
http://twitter.com/apa_
advocacy
Questions about the Twitter page or how to set up an account? Please contact Kate McAllister at advocacy@psych.org. |
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| Disability Claims Process To Be Eased For Veterans With PTSD
The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to issue new final rules that will make it substantially easier for veterans who have been found to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to receive disability benefits, a change that could affect hundreds of thousands of veterans from the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. These new regulations from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which will take effect as early as July 12 and cost as much as $5 billion over several years according to Congressional analysts, will essentially eliminate a requirement that veterans document specific events like bomb blasts, firefights or mortar attacks that might have caused PTSD, an illness characterized by emotional numbness, irritability and flashbacks. Notably, the regulations apply to veterans of all wars. These rules were proposed last year in a similar for and APA submitted comments praising the policy shift and also expressing our concerns that the PTSD determinations be made by a VA/VA-contracted psychiatrist or psychologist. We will continue to discuss our concerns with the VA as this policy moves forward. |
House Approves Supplemental with Pell Grant Funds, "Budget Enforcement" Resolution
On July 1, the House approved its version of the FY '10 war supplemental (H.R. 4899) with $4.95 billion to patch the $5.7 billion shortfall in Pell Grants. The supplemental now must be approved by the Senate, which will not consider the spending bill until it returns from the week-long (July 5-12) Independence Day recess. The Senate originally was unable to include the House's proposed $23 billion in domestic spending in its version of the bill due to objections from Republicans and fiscally conservative Democrats. If funds for the Pell Grant program are not included in the supplemental, appropriators will need to resolve the shortfall by finding $5.7 billion within the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill. House leaders also included a "budget enforcement resolution" (H.R. 1493) as part of the rule for considering the supplemental. The resolution caps discretionary spending for FY '11 at $1.21 trillion, a level $7 billion below the president's FY '11 request and $3 billion below the level approved by the Senate Budget Committee earlier in the year. This does not bode well for domestic health programs as the appropriations process advances. |
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Obama Appoints New CMS Administrator
President Obama bypassed the U.S. Senate and appointed Donald Berwick, M.D., as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). President Obama put Berwick in the job using a recess appointment, a procedure that lets the president fill positions without Senate confirmation when Congress is not meeting. CMS has not had a permanent head for four years now, a point that the Administration used in explaining the White House's decision to appoint Dr. Berwick during the July 4 recess. Dr. Berwick has attracted support from medical specialties and the American Medical Association. |
Federal Assistance for Medicaid Stalls in Senate Over Cost Concerns
Congress has yet to take action on an extension of enhanced federal assistance for state Medicaid programs. The extension, known as FMAP, was originally included in a larger package of job creation and tax credit measures, but rising concerns over the federal deficit have stalled the bill at multiple stages throughout the legislative process. Currently, the Senate leadership has been unable to muster the 60 votes needed for passage of the measure.
At present, 28 states are counting on the FMAP in their FY '11 budgets and will have to cover hundreds of millions of dollars in budget gaps if the funding does not come through. For additional information on how each state will be affected, see this summary and state-by-state chart from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. |
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HHS Releases Proposed Changes to HIPAA Rule Extending Mandate to Business Associates
On July 8, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced proposed changes to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules, saying the modifications to the privacy, security, and enforcement provisions would implement congressionally mandated updates to existing rules as well as improve their workability and effectiveness. The key function of the proposed new rule is to extend requirements for protecting the privacy and security of patients' protected health information to business associates of health care entities already covered by HIPAA. Ensuring the privacy and security of patient health information is a chief concern for APA and DGR will be closely reviewing the proposed rule and plans to submit comments to HHS. |
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CMS Proposes Changes to Graduate Medical Education System
On July 2, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the 2011 Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) proposed rule last Friday which contained graduate medical education (GME) provisions addressed in the health care reform law. These provisions include the distribution of unused Medicare resident slots, the permanent redistribution of slots from closed hospitals, changes to how programs should count the time spent by residents in nonhospital settings, such as physicians' offices, as well as time spent in didactic and scholarly activities, for Medicare payment purposes. APA will be reviewing the rule and how these provisions affect psychiatry residency programs and prepare comments which are due to CMS by August 31, 2010. |
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