Advocacy in Action

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee convened a hearing on November 8th to discuss policy considerations for artificial intelligence (AI) in health care.

On November 16th, President Joe Biden signed a bill to avert a government shutdown and keep the government open through early 2024.

On November 14th, the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care held a hearing titled "Ensuring Medicare Beneficiary Access: A Path to Telehealth Permanency." The hearing focused on making permanent the telehealth flexibilities available during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE).

New legislation, the No Fees for EFTs Act (H.R.6487), was recently introduced to prohibit health plans from imposing fees on physicians and hospitals for standard electronic funds transfer (EFT) payments.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued a final guidance document to provide clarification on its enforcement policies and premarket review expectations for certain non-invasive remote monitoring used for patient monitoring at the conclusion of the COVID-19 public health emergency titled "Enforcement Policy for Non-Invasive Remote Monitoring Devices Used to Support Patient Monitoring."

CMS recently announced that it will soon begin conducting MIPS Data Validation and Audits (DVA) related to 2022 performance year (PY) data. DVAs are conducted to confirm the accuracy and completeness of data reported for purposes of MIPS.

On October 17th, CMS released the final evaluation report of the Million Hearts Cardiovascular Disease Risk Reduction Model.

On November 2nd, CMS published the final rule with comment period for outpatient hospital and ambulatory surgical center (ASC) services for CY 2024.

On October 25th, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee advanced the nomination of Dr. Monica Bertagnolli to serve as Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by a vote of 15-6.

While Congress continues to debate how to address future Medicare physician payment updates, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) covered the topic during its October meeting as a precursor to delivering potential recommendations to Congress on the matter.