Weekly Round-Up: Top News in Health Care Law
HITPC Issues Preliminary Recommendations for Stage 2 Meaningful Use Objectives, Solicits Public Comment - Last week the federal Health Information Technology Policy Committee (“HITPC”) released its proposed “Stage 2” objectives for meaningful use – i.e., what healthcare providers will need to do in order to quality for Medicare/Medicaid incentive payments.
The Stage 2 objectives place a heightened emphasis on health information exchange across institutional boundaries, and focus heavily on computerized physician order entry (CPOE) and e-prescribing. For more information, and for details on how to submit a public comment, click here.
U.S. House Vote on Healthcare Bill Repeal to Take Place This Week – Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) has announced that the House’s “symbolic” vote on the repeal of PPACA would take place this week. The vote, which was originally scheduled for Jan. 12, was delayed following the Jan. 8 shooting in Arizona that left six dead and several others wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).
The “symbolic” vote is largely to fulfill promises to the constituencies of the newly-elected GOP members, given that regardless of what happens in the House, an actual repeal of PPACA is impossible. The Democratic-led Senate will not back a House vote, and even if the bill does pass President Obama will certainly veto it. Additionally, the bill’s main flaw (dubbed the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act”) is that it seeks to repeal PPACA in its entirety, and many of even the most emphatic “anti-Obamacare”-ites have agreed that certain provisions of PPACA, such as those that allow children to stay on their parents insurance up until the age of 26, or ones that mandate coverage for children with pre-existing conditions.
The vote is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 19, according to a scheduled released by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.)
Medicare Rescinds Payments for End-Of-Life Counseling – Speaking of repealing, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that Medicare will not issue payments to physicians who advise patients on end-of-life care and other advance-care planning during annual wellness visits. The payment policy had taken effect on Jan. 1 but was yanked a mere 5 days later. The advanced-care counseling provision was highly contested by critics who claimed that the effort would lead to “government-sanctioned euthanasia” or “federal death panels.”
