House appropriators on Tuesday (May 21) approved top-line spending amounts for each of 12 appropriations bills for fiscal 2014 -- including a 22 percent cut to HHS, Labor and Education funding -- while also rejecting a Democratic proposal to replace the across-the-board sequestration cuts.

America's Health Insurance Plans is pushing back against a study published in Health Affairs Tuesday (May 7) that finds beneficiaries with Medigap plans have higher spending growth rates than beneficiaries without such plans -- study results that could bolster a push by lawmakers, the White House and key health care experts to scale back Medigap coverage as a cost-savings move.

A coalition of drug makers, primary care providers, pharmacies and patient advocates hopes to develop by the end of the month recommendations on medication adherence, Council for Affordable Health Coverage Executive Director Joel White told Inside Health Policy.

FDA is in discussions with the White House Office of Management and Budget and congressional committees about gaining access to $85 million in sequestered industry fees, the agency's financial officials said, noting that the issue is starting to resonate on Capitol Hill.

CMS informed Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D plans that they cannot reduce benefits, increase premiums or hike cost sharing in any attempt to offset sequestration cuts.

Key House and Senate Republicans are proposing to use the welfare reform law of the 1990s as a model for reforming Medicaid by releasing states from many federal requirements and capping per person the federal portion of their budgets.

Yet another bipartisan group, Brookings Institution's Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform, suggests that Congress build on accountable care organizations (ACOs) by transitioning fee-for-service Medicare to what it calls Medicare Comprehensive Care (MCC) organizations in which seniors would enroll and share in savings, a proposal resembling the Medicare Networks that the Bipartisan Policy Center recommended last week.

Two bipartisan deficit-reduction plans released late last week propose banning reverse payment drug patent settlements, and one of them also recommends enacting measures to prevent brand-name drug manufacturers from using Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies to preclude generic companies from obtaining product samples to conduct studies required for generic approval.

The chairmen of the White House's 2010 deficit-reduction panel on Friday (April 19) unveiled an updated deficit-reduction plan that includes key Medicare proposals that include: gradually increase the Medicare eligibility age while implementing a “buy-in” program with income-related premiums and subsidies for lower-income seniors; give IPAB more power; repeal the Medicare physician pay formula -- accompanied by a pay cut; make Medicare Advantage plans bid against one another; restore drug rebates to those dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid; ban pay-for-delay; combine hospital, medical and drug insurance; expand durable medical equipment competitive bidding; bundle pay; restrict Medigap; and means test more seniors.

Continued budget constraints could force FDA and appropriators to consider industry fees to fill funding gaps that threaten full implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, according to the new chairman of the Senate appropriations panel with jurisdiction over FDA's funding.

A key official at the group representing cancer clinics is blasting the White House's fiscal 2014 budget proposal to reduce reimbursement for cancer drugs from average sales price (ASP) plus 6 percent down to ASP plus 3 percent, a policy estimated to save the federal government $3.3 billion over 10 years.

The vast majority of fraud in the home care industry is still isolated in a handful of counties, a new industry study finds, and a coalition that includes home health firms and AARP says lawmakers could glean billions more in savings by ending Medicare fraud instead of making seniors pay more for services and cutting provider pay.