What's in the Stimulus for Health Care?
I have been asked by many people today about what is in the compromise stimulus bill for health care. I m happy to note that COBRA payments and Electronic Medical Records are still included. Here is a summary from Kaiser Daily Health report:
House and Senate negotiators on Wednesday reached a tentative compromise on a $789.5 billion economic stimulus package that includes some concessions on health care, "clearing the way" for final passage of the package by the end of the week, the New York Times reports (Herszenhorn/Hulse, New York Times, 2/12). According to the Washington Post, "despite the acknowledgement of ceding some ground," President Obama "secured many of his biggest priorities in the legislation, including the longer-term health care and energy investments that the administration views as a down payment on broader reforms" (Murray/Kane, Washington Post, 2/12). Among other provisions, the compromise stimulus package would:
Provide federal subsidies for health insurance under COBRA that would cover 60% of the cost of premiums for as long as nine months and impose income eligibility limits for the subsidies (Rogers, The Politico, 2/12);?
Provide $19 billion for health care information technology, with bonuses of between $44,000 and $64,000 for physicians and as much as $11 million for hospitals for the implementation of electronic health records; physicians and hospitals must implement EHRs by 2014 or face the loss of Medicare reimbursements (Hitt/Weisman, Wall Street Journal, 2/12);?
Distribute 65% of $87 billion in additional federal funds for state Medicaid programs under the current formula and distribute the remainder based on growth in unemployment rates in states (Rubin/Ota, CQ Today, 2/11);?
Provide $10 billion to NIH for biomedical research (Espo, AP/Boston Globe, 2/11); and?
Provide $1.1 billion for research to compare the effectiveness of medications and medical devices (Hitt/Weisman, Wall Street Journal, 2/12).
The compromise stimulus package does not include a provision in the House version that would have allowed states to expand Medicaid coverage to recently unemployed workers (Meckler, Wall Street Journal, 2/12).
Best,
Anne